Widespread body pain, sensitivities to nearly everything, fatigue and sleep disturbances…these are the common symptoms of fibromyalgia. It can be difficult to determine what would be an appropriate gift. I remember very vividly what it was like to have Fibromyalgia. Sometimes it hurt too badly just to lay down in bed. Here are some great fibromyalgia gifts that will give joy and comfort for years to come!Happy Heartfelt Holidays!

Super-Soft Microfiber Hooded Robe When you are too tired to get dressed and everything hurts this robe is like a gentle hug. The super soft microfibers will not irritate or itch. It keeps you warm without being heavy. Ahh! That’s better.

Wool Blanket(to go under the bottom bed sheet)Forget a scratchy wool blanket like your grandmother had! These blankets are very soft, but they go UNDER your bottom bed sheet.I used to have a heated mattress pad or an electric blanket, but I became concerned about potential exposure to harmful EMFs. With a wool blanket under my bottom sheet, there is no electricity to worry about and the bed stays warm, cozy and breathable.

BONUS IDEA:I would be shot by my publisher if I did not mention my book, which takes people on a step-by-step path for complete recovery from fibromyalgia and its coexisting conditions. I have been recovered from fibromyalgia for nearly 10 years now, and I am on a mission to help others do the same. Freedom from Fibromyalgia: 7 Steps to Complete Recovery is available on Amazon or on my website www.TheFibroLady.com.

I remember the last year that I was really sick (highly symptomatic of fibromyalgia and coexisting conditions). I did not want to go to my in-laws’ house for Thanksgiving. I didn’t want to go anywhere for that matter, and I just stayed home all the time. It wasn’t just that one year; it was several years.

Holidays were a particular hell – I had to be present at a certain time, I had to spend a couple hours with people I only saw once or twice a year, I felt like I had to explain why I looked just fine but couldn’t work or do anything meaningful with my life, plus wear nice clothes and eat different food. Ugh! Let me go back to bed!

On that last year I was trying to tell my husband I wasn’t going to go to his parents’ house for Thanksgiving. My husband is a very sweet person, and he had put up with a lot with me being sick. He gave me this look like “unless you have to go to the hospital, you better go, don’t do this to me.”

Here in the US, some families take turns going around the table declaring what they are thankful for that year. When every fiber of your being is in pain, sleep has been elusive for years, and fatigue is crushing, it takes a lot more imagination to find reasons to be grateful.

How can I be grateful when I am so sick? Nothing seems good when looked through the lens of an intense illness. The more you need something, the harder it is to get, right?

You know how it is when you get around somebody that is really complaining, and it might be totally legitimate, but it can really bring the mood down. Then other people pipe in and start commiserating, and soon everyone is feeling really sour. This is an example of the principle of Law of Attraction, “like attracts like.” A negative thought attracts another negative thought like the fibers in a string of yarn until it becomes a rope.

Oppositely, when you focus on better feeling thoughts, you then start to attract more better feeling thoughts. Thoughts lead to feelings, and who doesn’t want to have good feelings?!

However, the truth of the matter is, you cannot go directly from being down and depressed to grateful and joyful. Or as Abraham-Hicks point out, “You just can’t get there from here.” And why would you want to anyway, what does it matter? What’s so important about gratitude? Why do we even have a holiday about this?

The fastest and most effective way to flip the switch on any kind of bad mood is to start counting your blessings, i.e., experiencing gratitude. When a person is down in the dumps, it takes some forethought to figure out what to be grateful for, but I have a simple method I learned from Abraham-Hicks: go general.

If you think about the specifics of your situation, you may very well not find anything to be grateful for, it may be just too raw for you to find anything. So to start (and I mean this is the start – not the end all, be all), start thinking about general things that are pleasant in your situation. Then those thoughts and feelings will start to attract more and more thoughts about even more and more positive aspects, and a positive spiral will start. When you get stuck, or a negative thought creeps in, and they will go back to a more general thought.

For example, I might be feeling pretty cruddy and just barely able to make it to the holiday dinner. How can I lift my mood or even begin to feel like I have gratitude? I start with something that is easy to be grateful for such as a pet. I think I am so grateful for my dog, she is such a comfort to me. Then I wait for a second or two for another positive thought. I’m glad I get to cuddle with my dog. As I am waiting for another positive thought, a negative one may creep in: but she needs a bath. Go back to general: I am so grateful that we have plenty of fresh, clean water. My dog loves baths, it’s so cute!

As you are thinking about your pet (or something else that is easy to think about), you may very well find your mood improves some. Then stay in that good mood for as long as you can and just focus on good feeling thoughts. When the negative thoughts creep in, just blow them off and don’t focus on them.

At this point you may have some ideas about how going to a holiday dinner might be bearable. Such as, hmm, I can wear something more comfortable, that way I may not tire out so quickly. Also, I can bring a cushion with me, that way the chair won’t hurt. I really appreciate how my mother-in-law hosts our family’s get together, she really cares about everyone being comfortable and happy.

You have to build up to the good feelings. Finding general things to be grateful for attracts more thoughts about what to be grateful for, for your specific situation.

So then what does gratitude do besides make you feel good? First, isn’t that great all on its own – any way to feel better, especially in the midst of soul-sucking pain, isn’t that enough all on its own?! In a very metaphysical way, gratitude attracts happiness and blessings the way a tuning fork, once struck, will turn on another tuning fork of the same note, that’s in its vicinity. Like attracts like.

About a month before that last Thanksgiving where I was so sick, I had started to meditate on “optimal health” which was the most audacious wish I could imagine. Within about two months I attracted the thought that I wanted to be happy no matter what the situation. I wasn’t one hundred percent, but my way of being changed so much so, that my husband thought my physical situation was improving. It hadn’t at that point, but that’s how big a difference changing my outlook made.

Within a year every single aspect of my life changed for the better: I recovered from fibromyalgia and the coexisting conditions I had, I lost over 70 pounds, I was able to get off all prescription drugs, and the miracle of miracles, I became pregnant (at 41 years old!). I know deep in my soul, that changing my outlook started the ball rolling, and attracted the people and things I needed to make the physical changes. I attracted happiness and blessings!

So what about you? What’s an easy subject for you think about? Do you love the crispness of the air this time of year? Do you love seeing how much the children have grown when everyone gathers for the holiday?

Also, what strategies have you come up with that help you get through the holidays with health and peace? Join the Freedom from Fibromyalgia: Fibro Natural Recovery Support group page (you have to request to join – there are all kinds of free resources in the Files section). I can’t wait to see you then!

I hope you are having a wonderful autumn/spring! The other morning, I was out walking my dog on her 20-foot-long trail leash and it was still fairly dark. There are no sidewalks in my neighborhood and there was a car parked on the street, so I had to walk in the grass to get around it. One wrong step, and before I knew it, down I went! I was ok, and, to my dog’s credit, she did walk back to check on me before resuming her walk.

(This is a picture from this summer of me and Annie with her trail leash, on a trail that had an osage orange tree tunnel.)

This event got me to thinking – ten years ago I would have never been out on a walk at 5:45 am, I would have never even had an athletic dog, and a fall, well, let’s just say it would ruin my day, if not the next two weeks. How my reality has changed! Because of my recovery, I’m not only able to be so active with my dog, but, because of the martial arts training I have been doing to “receive” the ground, I just rolled right out of it! I amazed myself!

I am writing to you about this to give you hope: recovery is not only possible – it’s within reach! I have actually been talking to people all over who have recovered, not only with my method but others as well. This week I will be doing a FaceBook Live video about “The Ways People Are Recovering from Fibromyalgia” on the free support group, Freedom from Fibromyalgia: Fibro Natural Recovery Support. It will air live at 2:00 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 11th.

To join in, just request approval to the group, and once you’ve been approved go to the Files section to get your free MP3 of my guided meditation recording “Optimal Health,” which I sell on my website every day for $19.95. If you can’t make it live, no worries, as it will stay up in the recordings.

We are having a lot of fun in this group, and sharing a lot of tips and useful info too! Not only can I not wait to see you there, but I can’t wait to hear about YOUR recovery story!!

How to Cope with Fibromyalgia – NOT!

I don’t write a lot about coping with the symptoms of fibromyalgia for one main reason – I sucked at it! I did not “cope” very well at all. My life was a shambles, my pain was out-of-control, I couldn’t work, I could barely care for myself, and I was so miserable I didn’t want to live anymore. I felt a prisoner in my own body. Sound familiar?

I was just living a life of quiet (and sometimes not-so-quiet) desperation. I couldn’t see a way out. Now I know a way out, that has not only worked for me but others as well. I compare it to being lost in the woods: someone found a path out and led me out. I have now gone back to help others get out.

I don’t write about coping not only because I did not do it very well, but because I feel it’s a waste of time when I can tell you about recovering. Yes, you need strategies to help you in the here and now, but you can find them all over the internet. What is more unique are strategies for healing and recovery, so that is my focus.

I want to help you recover your health so you can do whatever it is you want to do in life. Maybe you want to lead people out of the woods too, or maybe you want to raise your children, finish school, or start a business. Whatever it is, it will be nearly impossible if all you can do is “cope.”

You don’t need to feel like a prisoner in your own body. For the last six years of my illness I was in bed 12-16 hours a day. I felt stuck. Don’t do like I did, get unstuck and take your life back.

So if you are wondering how to cope with fibromyalgia, I invite you to follow my “roadmap” for recovery from the symptoms of fibromyalgia and its coexisting conditions. You can read the first chapter of my book for free at http://unconventionaltraditional.com/my-story/ . I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

If it feels right to you, then I invite you to take a look at one of the many resources I offer, including the upcoming 3D Fibro Healing TeleClass. Our first class is free and it is on April 21st at 7pm EST. To get information go to www.3DFibro.com/optin .

I look forward to hearing about your recovery and what you do once you take back your life!

Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 30 Days Without Exercising, Starving or Stressing

Where’s Leah?

Healthier and Happier

I heard you speak in Northern Virginia in August, read your book, and then you and I talked on the phone. Fast forward about six weeks, and I am sooooo much healthier and happier! I have been using your products and eating as you suggest, and I’ve experienced nothing short of a miracle!

Nancy

A Wonderful Book

This is a wonderful book that gives you steps on how to get healthy and rid yourself of the symptoms of fibromyalgia. It also has good information in general for anyone suffering from a chronic disease. I recommend it to my patients with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, depression, and PTSD.

Elizabeth Case, MD

Love can survive Fibromyalgia

I can see a huge light at the end of the tunnel. I am following Leah’s protocol and I am excited. Now my husband and I can go for a coffee, small but like gold to me – and also walk along the Bay with our two Mini Schnauzers. Love can survive Fibromyalgia, however, you have to understand and appreciate how hard it is for your partner. Love to all.